The Summer of 2012-13 Brings Fires to Australia

When a bushfire tore through an Australian astronomical observatory in January 2013, fire-prevention lessons from a decade earlier paid off. An image from the Terra satellite shows the small but crucial patch of forest that survived the blaze.

An intense heat wave that struck Australia in January 2013 fueled damaging fires not only in Tasmania but in central Australia as well. Satellites captured images of the fires during the night and day on January 9.